The Movie Channel
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History
The Movie Channel began in 1973 as Star Channel, a pay movie service of Gridtronics, delivering movies to cable systems via videotape delivered to the cable companies. Sometimes cable companies would have technical problems with the delivered tapes, especially when the tapes jammed on playback to viewers.Later in the decade, it was acquired by Warner Communications, and eventually brought into the Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment joint venture. The network was initially offered on Warner Cable systems, and later on Warner-Amex's experimental QUBE interactive service. In January 1979, Star Channel was uplinked to satellite, and became a national service. On December 1, the network took on a new name: The Movie Channel.
The Movie Channel was also the first premium channel to show R-rated films during the day. Parent network Showtime also airs R-rated films during the day, as does Cinemax, Encore and Starz. HBO does not air any R-rated films on its primary channel until after 8:00pm (Eastern Time).
In 1983, Warner-Amex merged The Movie Channel with Viacom's Showtime to form Showtime Networks. In 1985, Viacom acquired WASEC's cable network assets, including their share of The Movie Channel.
In the mid 1980's, The Movie Channel was one of the first channels to broadcast movies in Stereo. As the standard for stereo broadcast was a few years away, cable operators had to carry the stereo signal as a FM simulcast requiring subscribers to tune their home stereo to an FM radio channel.
The Movie Channel was originally an individual channel, though part of the Showtime Networks family. As of recent, TMC has become part of the Showtime Unlimited package but is no longer advertised as a separate network from Showtime. Comcast cable systems still promote TMC as a separate service.
For a brief period in the late 1990s, The Movie Channel experimented with premiering its own original movies.
In addition to theatrical movies, The Movie Channel also airs "First-Run Movies", movies that airing for the first time anywhere. TMC has also tried to compete in the premium channel race by airing softcore erotica late at night like parent network Showtime and its competitor Cinemax, which started the trend.
In 2005, Showtime Networks (which includes Showtime and TMC, along with Flix and Sundance Channel) became part of CBS Corporation following CBS' split from Viacom.
TMC has aired different segments in-between programs such as:
- TMC's Reel Stuff: featuring fun facts about movies and the actors who play in them.
- The Pitch: a two-minute sketch segment starring actor Sean Smith as a movie exec who listens as people try to pitch him movie ideas (the movies pitched are famous movies such as Cliffhanger and Terminator, etc.).
- TMC has also inserted fun facts in promos for movies airing on the channel.
On May 3, 2006, the movie channel rebranded itself once again,without the signature ball. It is now called The Movie Channel,Movies For Movie Lovers. TMC Xtra was also in the rebranding process as well.
The Movie Channel Xtra
"More movies. More stuff". More of the big movies, trivia and film facts that you enjoy on The Movie Channel, that is what you will get on TMC Xtra. On May 3rd 2006, The Movie Channel Xtra was rebranded just like the movie channel. The logo looks exactly the same as the movie channel with the word Xtra under it.
The Movie Channel HD
TMC HD is a high definition simulcast of The Movie Channel and Movie Channel Xtra featuring blockbuster films.
The Movie Channel On Demand
The Movie Channel Around the World
United Kingdom
There was an unrelated satellite television channel of the same name in the United Kingdom, running from March 1990 to November 1997, when it was renamed Sky Screen 2. Originally part of BSB, it became part of the newly merged BSkyB in November 1990. Since then it has become part of the Sky Movies network.Movies
The Movie Channel airs movies produced by studios such as Paramount Pictures (owned by TMC's former parent company Viacom), Sony Pictures Entertainment and many others.Usually films which Showtime has pay-cable rights to will also run on The Movie Channel during its time of license.
The Movie Channel Logo
TMC's early logo featured a star alongside of an upper-case The Movie Channel, in a fitting reference to its previous identity as Star Channel. TMC's second logo used beginning in the 1992 featured a person's face from the nose up in a rectangle with The Movie Channel in upper-case letters. The words "The Movie" were above the face and the word "Channel" was below it. TMC rebranded itself in 1997, with a new logo and the tagline "100% Pure Movies, 100% Pure Fun." It's logo featured a green ball with the channel's short name TMC, in lower-case letters, usually shown either to the side of the channel's name also in lower-case letters or on top of the name. A similar logo was used when the channel rebranded itself in 2001, with the tagline "The Stuff Movies Are Made Of". This logo design featured the ball with TMC on it, surrouned with two lines on the corners of the ball. The word "Movie" was shown in bold.
External links
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Services: Flix | Showtime | Showtime Beyond | Showtime Extreme | Showtime Family Zone | Showtime Next | Showtime Showcase | Showtime Too | Showtime Women | Sundance Channel (co-owned with Robert Redford and NBC Universal) | The Movie Channel | The Movie Channel Xtra Website: [www.sho.com] (not accessible outside of the USA) |
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